A couple of days ago I was over at Andy’s place for a meeting with our new post production team on TV was the Democratic National Convention. Of course there aren’t many people who don’t know Barack Obama, and there are a lot of people who would like to see him become the next President of the Unites States.
The next day, we Canadians were informed that we would be voting for our country’s leader this coming autumn as well. Unfortunately, we don’t have any interesting or electrifying candidate like Obama running in our election. Oh-oh he’s talking politics, quick let’s leave the blog. Wait, don’t go! Seriously, I’m leading into something on film.
I was never into politics, I never really understood it and it never really affected me. And to be honest, I voted only once in my life. I always thought that no matter what joker was in power my life would ultimately remain the same as the quality of life went down and the cost of living went up. Recently though, (here’s the stuff on film—see I didn’t lie) our wonderful politicians in Ottawa began introducing wild ideas like Bill C-10 which made me start paying attention to who runs my country. The Bill is best described in the words of CBC as “an omnibus bill amending the Income Tax Act and contains a series of amendments affecting a variety of different industries, funds and individuals… The issue that concerns Canada’s film and television community is Section 120, which would allow the Heritage Minister (currently Josée Verner) to withdraw tax credits from productions determined to be ‘contrary to public policy.’” If you’re thinking that this sounds like censorship, well you’re thinking like a lot of film and TV people in Canada. Basically, the Heritage Minister would create a set of guidelines (the guidelines are yet to be established—because its always better to pass a Bill while it still hasn’t been fully thought out) to be monitored by committees within the heritage and justice departments. These guidelines would surely cover such things as violence, hatred, drug usage, racism and sexual content. So I guess we can’t make any after school specials in Canada. Of course the minister said: “Bill C-10 has nothing to do with censorship and everything to do with the integrity of the tax system. The goal is to ensure public trust in how tax dollars are spent.”
My opinion is a simple, either tax dollars go to art or they don’t. You can’t pick and choose what gets it and not, artists have a hard enough with that from the private sector with corporate sponsors who don’t want to damage their image by be associated with a specific type of artistic message. If the government does that any unique voices in the Canadian film industry will be destroyed. Besides, a truly insane person (and there are one or two of those in this country) will take offense to almost anything—in fact a quick Google search will give you interesting results who find such Canadian milestone children’s shows like Mr. Dressup and The Friendly Giant as offensive and not suitable for children. So, with this wonderful melting pot that is my country how can a government committee decide what goes against the entire public’s interest? An Afghani news show on cable that depends on grants to survive may be found offensive by a little old conservative racist white lady out west or an internationally acclaimed movie like C.R.A.Z.Y. from Quebec, which deals with drug use and homosexuality, may be offensive to a housewife somewhere in the Maritimes. But you know what? Canada is all of this. Like it our not, Canada is Muslim as it Jewish, Christian and everything else. Canada is gay as it is straight. The idea that the government can decide what kind art and ergo what type of thinking our tax dollars finance is false. No other country has such silly ideas where the government tells its people what is best for them… oh wait, China does that… as do Cuba and North Korea.
Maybe I will pay quite a lot of attention to this next election.
The next day, we Canadians were informed that we would be voting for our country’s leader this coming autumn as well. Unfortunately, we don’t have any interesting or electrifying candidate like Obama running in our election. Oh-oh he’s talking politics, quick let’s leave the blog. Wait, don’t go! Seriously, I’m leading into something on film.
I was never into politics, I never really understood it and it never really affected me. And to be honest, I voted only once in my life. I always thought that no matter what joker was in power my life would ultimately remain the same as the quality of life went down and the cost of living went up. Recently though, (here’s the stuff on film—see I didn’t lie) our wonderful politicians in Ottawa began introducing wild ideas like Bill C-10 which made me start paying attention to who runs my country. The Bill is best described in the words of CBC as “an omnibus bill amending the Income Tax Act and contains a series of amendments affecting a variety of different industries, funds and individuals… The issue that concerns Canada’s film and television community is Section 120, which would allow the Heritage Minister (currently Josée Verner) to withdraw tax credits from productions determined to be ‘contrary to public policy.’” If you’re thinking that this sounds like censorship, well you’re thinking like a lot of film and TV people in Canada. Basically, the Heritage Minister would create a set of guidelines (the guidelines are yet to be established—because its always better to pass a Bill while it still hasn’t been fully thought out) to be monitored by committees within the heritage and justice departments. These guidelines would surely cover such things as violence, hatred, drug usage, racism and sexual content. So I guess we can’t make any after school specials in Canada. Of course the minister said: “Bill C-10 has nothing to do with censorship and everything to do with the integrity of the tax system. The goal is to ensure public trust in how tax dollars are spent.”
My opinion is a simple, either tax dollars go to art or they don’t. You can’t pick and choose what gets it and not, artists have a hard enough with that from the private sector with corporate sponsors who don’t want to damage their image by be associated with a specific type of artistic message. If the government does that any unique voices in the Canadian film industry will be destroyed. Besides, a truly insane person (and there are one or two of those in this country) will take offense to almost anything—in fact a quick Google search will give you interesting results who find such Canadian milestone children’s shows like Mr. Dressup and The Friendly Giant as offensive and not suitable for children. So, with this wonderful melting pot that is my country how can a government committee decide what goes against the entire public’s interest? An Afghani news show on cable that depends on grants to survive may be found offensive by a little old conservative racist white lady out west or an internationally acclaimed movie like C.R.A.Z.Y. from Quebec, which deals with drug use and homosexuality, may be offensive to a housewife somewhere in the Maritimes. But you know what? Canada is all of this. Like it our not, Canada is Muslim as it Jewish, Christian and everything else. Canada is gay as it is straight. The idea that the government can decide what kind art and ergo what type of thinking our tax dollars finance is false. No other country has such silly ideas where the government tells its people what is best for them… oh wait, China does that… as do Cuba and North Korea.
Maybe I will pay quite a lot of attention to this next election.
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